What would you do?

[turkeyrun]

1968, Dad, my Uncle, a co-worker and a friend found a day lease. Called the rancher and scheduled a hunt.

Arrived at the rancher's house, got the rules, where to camp and property boundaries. Rancher said, "the big bucks are in back section."

Set up camp and got ready for the next day. Next morning, headed out, got to fence and crossed. Could see woods ahead, appeared to be a creek. Fence at edge of woods, as described. Crossed fence and spread out along the creek.

3 of them shot nice bucks, Uncle seen a good one, but never presented a shot.
As they come out of woods, confronted by GW and man claiming to be landowner.

They were arrested and taken to see Judge. Judge "suggested" they pay fines and go home; otherwise, spend the night in jail and make a return trip for court trial. Dad's friend was our City DA and said they would wait for trial.

Trial was set for 60 days. DA contacted his college buddy, the State AG. Found MANY complaints about that County Judge. The lease rancher was the Judge's brother. The GW was a cousin. The neighbor was GW B-i-L.

When the rancher was giving them directions, the DA had a tape recorder in his pocket.

The 4, plus AG and 2 Texas Rangers arrived for court date. Judge knew he had crapped in his mess kit. Others weren't so bright.

Dad never deer hunted or leased property, again.

 

[Oklahomabassin]

 

[Oklahomabassin]

1968, Dad, my Uncle, a co-worker and a friend found a day lease. Called the rancher and scheduled a hunt.

Arrived at the rancher's house, got the rules, where to camp and property boundaries. Rancher said, "the big bucks are in back section."

Set up camp and got ready for the next day. Next morning, headed out, got to fence and crossed. Could see woods ahead, appeared to be a creek. Fence at edge of woods, as described. Crossed fence and spread out along the creek.

3 of them shot nice bucks, Uncle seen a good one, but never presented a shot.
As they come out of woods, confronted by GW and man claiming to be landowner.

They were arrested and taken to see Judge. Judge "suggested" they pay fines and go home; otherwise, spend the night in jail and make a return trip for court trial. Dad's friend was our City DA and said they would wait for trial.

Trial was set for 60 days. DA contacted his college buddy, the State AG. Found MANY complaints about that County Judge. The lease rancher was the Judge's brother. The GW was a cousin. The neighbor was GW B-i-L.

When the rancher was giving them directions, the DA had a tape recorder in his pocket.

The 4, plus AG and 2 Texas Rangers arrived for court date. Judge knew he had crapped in his mess kit. Others weren't so bright.

Dad never deer hunted or leased property, again.

Must have been a big pocket for a tape recorder in 1968.

 

[turkeyrun]

Must have been a big pocket for a tape recorder in 1968.

Yeah, mister know-it-all. Mini cassettes existed, not much bigger than a pack of cigarettes. But, you were there.

 

[SoonerP226]

I would have called the sheriff and had him confiscate the doe.

He was going to, but he was late for a swimming lesson.

 

[TedKennedy]

He was going to, but he was late for a swimming lesson.

Yeah, my early 1980s cell phone didn't get really good service out there either.
I doubt there was any deer for charity setup back then.

 

[Preacherman]

Follow up question

If they refuse to lay their rifle down or hand it over what would you do?

 

[SoonerP226]

Follow up question

If they refuse to lay their rifle down or hand it over what would you do?

 

[jakeman]

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chai_Vang

https://www.themeateater.com/conser...-murder-the-day-a-trespasser-killed-6-hunters

I would suggest those of you with intentions to “disarm” someone in the woods get your affairs in order. Just in case. Right or wrong doesn’t really matter when you’re dead.

I’ve disarmed a few folks in my time on this rock. I was a LEO and it was done at gun point. I would never attempt to “disarm” someone as a civilian. Game Wardens, with badges and the weight of LE, get shot a lot, but ya’ll do you.

Whole bunch of horrible advice in here. If you’ve confronted a trespasser, told them they were trespassing and they do anything except issue apologies and immediately leave you have a situation on your hands that should be handled by LE. In that situation any advice that doesn’t start and end with calling the sheriff or warden fits in the horrible category.

 

[Cowcatcher]

The last couple people I know that hit deer and did the right thing by calling the game warden were told to do whatever they wanted to with it. The game wardens wouldn’t even come out. I guess they might come out for a poaching case, but who knows anymore.

Last game warden I spoke to a couple years ago acted as if I was wasting his time. I found a section of our fence cut along a road, blood everywhere and a large area where the grass had been all mashed down where it would appear the dear had been gutted. They didn’t cut the bottom wire were they drug the deer out to the road so that wire had deer hair all over it. It was obvious to me what had happened but the warden through all kinds of other hypotheticals at me that didn’t include someone shooting a deer from the road, cutting our fence and dragging it out to put it in their truck. I didn’t expect him to solve the crime by looking at the scene but I damn sure didn’t expect him to try and come up with some explanation without looking at the scene and making a note. Anyhow, I learned to not bother wardens with frivolous things like a deer being poached.